The present invention generally relates to textiles that generate heat from electricity.
Thermal generating textiles have been known that incorporate a conductive yarn into the textile which generates heat when electricity is applied to the conductive yarn. However, the conductive yarns used to generate heat are not self regulating and the textile can overheat without protection.
To provide some self regulation of the thermal generation, thermal generating wires have been used with textiles. Typically the self regulating thermal wires are two parallel conductors with a thermal generating material disposed between the two conductors. Heat is generated by the wire when electricity is applied between the two conductors. To regulate the heat generation of the wire, the thermal generating material between the two conductors includes the characteristics of increased resistance with increased temperature and decreased resistance with decreased temperature. However, wires with textiles present irregularities in the product that are not pleasing to users of the product.
Therefore, there is a need for thermal textiles that have self regulating heating without the use of heating wires.